Harry Weasley
Chapter Eighteen: Calming Fluffy and the tasks
A/N: I am sorry that I am combining two chapters into this chapter, but I find that it is going to be to short without the tasks underneath Fluffy. Thank you all for your great reviews and following this story til the end. I am promising you that when I post this chapter, I will be posting the rest of the first year also. —Donald
When they opened the door, they found a magical harp in the corner playing the Brahm's lullabies. They saw that Fluffy was softly snoring, all three heads of him. They went up to look at Fluffy and try to figure out how they were going to get past him. They tried Wingardium Leviosa to levitate it, but they found that there magic wouldn't work on him. Harry tried to lift it by himself, but found that it was just to heavy. Harry and Ron tried to lift it with both their strengths, but it was still to heavy. The three of them decided that they would need to do it with all three of their strengths. The three of them lifted the heavy paw off of the trapdoor, and to the side. They opened the door and looked down in to see if they could see anything. "Well who's going to go first? I think you should Harry, then I will go, then Ron will follow me." Hermoine was thinking about how this might work when they all felt the silence. "Do you guys hear that. The music stopped."
The three of them looked over their shoulder to see whether or not Fluffy had woken yet. They didn't see the heads where they had left them and turned back to the trapdoor. They were deciding how long they had, when Ron felt water fall on his shoulder. He let out a scream and jumped down the hole, quickly followed by Harry and Hermoine and fluffy snapping after them but just missing.
As they fell they all landed in a heap on a pile of plant material. Hermoine lit her wand and looked around. "Oh my looks like we landed in the Devil's Snare. Now what have I read about how to get out of this." As Hermoine was getting agitated about this, the three of them started sinking into the plant. Ron was beginning to get panicky and the plant was strangling him. "I have it guys, just calm down and you will just pass through it. Just calm down." Hermoine relaxed and settled through the Devil's Snare and passed through it. Harry decided that if she could do it, so could he.
He first called out, "are you alright Hermoine? Did it work?" Harry was calling through the plant down to her.
"Yah I'm fine Harry, it's just a small drop once you get through the plant. Just remember to relax."
Harry finally was able to relax, and found himself going through the plant easily and had a short fall to the floor underneath.
"Where's Ron, why doesn't he do the same thing? Ron just relax, and you will go right through and be fine." Ron wasn't able to relax for some reason, and didn't listen to Hermoine and just kept struggling. "What was the other thing I heard about this. Common Hermoine, you know there was something else that would save Ron. Think, think, think. Duh, that's it." Hermoine raised her wand and shouted. "Lumos." The plant shrank and Ron fell through to join his friends on the floor underneath. "Sorry it took so long Ron, I couldn't remember that the Devil's Snare doesn't like sunlight or bright lights." Hermoine smiled at Ron as he sat there getting his breath back.
"Well shall we get back to what we were doing. If I remember right from my dream, the next trap will be trying to catch a flying key out of the air out of hundreds of them." The three friends started walking along a lone corridor and were soon hearing the beats of thousands of wings coming from ahead of them. "I think we found what we were looking for." The three of them came across the flying keys and a broom on the other side.
They went to the other side of the room to try the door, and found that even Alohomora wouldn't work to open it. Harry finally decided that he had to catch the key from the back of a broom. Harry climbed aboard the broom and went in search of the key. When he mounted it, the keys went wild, and he went off in search of it. He went about it like it was a snitch. He was searching all over the place, and eventually found it after going on a wild ride throughout the whole area. He caught it, and the keys went like they were going to go after him. He flew down rather fast and tossed the key to Hermoine where she opened the door rather quickly and Harry flew through it after them and the door was slammed shut and the rest of the keys slammed into the closed door. "Wow that was interesting, I wonder who has set up these traps. Let's see here, the first one was definitely set up by Professor Sprout, and I could guess that the Potions challenge would have been set up by Snape. The keys by Professor Flitwick, and the Chessboard by Professor McGonagall. It seems that the traps were set up by the heads of households, and it's not going to be easy."
The three of them agreed that they weren't going to make it through this without any problems, but knew that they could do it. They made there way to another door, and found it unlocked. When they entered, they found that the door shut behind them with a loud thud, and a bright light filled the room. They found themselves on a giant chessboard. When they went to cross the floor to the other door, the opposing King blocked their path not letting them get through. "Looks like we're going to have to play to win this game. Ok let me think, Hermoine, you take the King side Castle. Harry you take the Queen side Bishop, and that makes me a Knight. Now just follow my instructions, and we will be ok." Even tho Ron wasn't sounding to assure of himself to his mind, he was actually sounding like he knew what he was doing. Harry and Hermoine went to their assigned spots, and Ron climbed up on the Knights Horse.
"Ron is this going to be like a real Wizard's Chess game?" Hermoine was worried about this and Ron didn't actually know.
"Well there is only one way to find out. White goes first so I move that pawn over there up two." When he said this, the pawn he indicated moved up two places. The other side moved a pawn up into place and knocked his pawn out with a vicious blow. "Yes Hermoine it looks like it is just like a Wizard's Chess game."
The rest of the game went pretty well when Ron saw that they could win if he sacrificed himself. "Ok there is one way for us to win in two moves. I'm going to move up into check, then when there Queen takes me out, Harry you move up into Checkmate on them. Now no arguing, I will be ok, I hope." Ron moved up to his spot, and called out "check." The opposing Queen went and swung and knocked him out and off his horse. Hermoine went to run to help him, but Harry stopped her just in time.
"Don't move Hermoine, if you do, we lose." Harry made his move and called out "Checkmate." The opposing King's sword fell out of his hands, and he collapsed to let them out through the door. Harry and Hermoine ran to Ron's side and found him just knocked out but still breathing. "We need to get going Hermoine, he will be alright. Let's go and get the stone." Harry and Hermoine went through the next door, and found that they were in a room full of potion bottles and both their doors blocked by flames.
"Looks like we have a problem Harry, we can't go back, and we can't go forward. Maybe these Potions have something to do with us going on." Harry and Hermoine went looking over the seven bottles of different sizes, and found a note. They read it and found out that three were harmless, two were poison, and there was one each to go back and forward. The riddle was a complex one that Hermoine sat there thinking on for about an hour. When she looked up finally, she said. "Well Harry now that I think about it, this is actually very easy. You see the ones in the middle are the poison, the ones on each side of them are nothing just plain old simple healing ones. The ones on the ends are the ones that we need to use. One will let one of us through the door ahead of us, and the other will let us through the other one. Now we just need to figure out which one is which. You will take the one to go ahead, and I will take the other one to go help get Ron out of here, then get Dumbledore and help. Now let me think." Hermoine sat there thinking and pondering over the different clues that they were given about the potions. When she looked up, she smiled at him and said. "You take the one on this end, and I will take the other one. Good luck Harry, get the stone. Don't fight unless you have to. I don't know what's going to happen, but I have a feeling that I'm going to see you again." Hermoine gave him a kiss on the cheek and a hug wishing him good luck. She drank her potion and went through the door leading to where they were. Harry watched her go, and took his potion, and went through the other door to either his doom, or to get the stone.